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Members of an Italy-based family of burglars who took over £1.2 million worth of items, including from former Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak, have been mandated to pay back only £1 per person.

Brothers Valentino and Giacomo, their sister Jela Jovanovic and her child Charlie Jovanovic journeyed to the northeastern of England to raid three houses in spring 2024.

The group of four were imprisoned for between a decade or less in May 2025.

At a criminal assets hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were ordered to pay back £1 each while Charlie must hand over over a thousand pounds.

Details of the Break-ins

The judge was told the gang arrived by ferry in the UK on March 27, 2024 and used a campervan as their "headquarters", which they parked at a service area and Durham service rest stops while utilizing a separate vehicle to search for properties and execute thefts.

On March 31 they stole over £1m of goods such as designer clothing, purses, jewellery and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were away.

The next evening, the crew broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and stole luxury bags, jewellery and shoes worth over one hundred thousand pounds.

After scouting out the football club's facility for two days, they then struck at the residence of Sweden striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking £10,000 in cash, £68,000 valued of jewelry and the striker's £120,000 luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional itinerant burglars, wore hand coverings and masks, turned their mobile devices off as they neared their objectives and strapped a number plate, which had been stolen from a auto shop in Chester-le-Street, on to their car with rubber straps.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Hearings and Sentencing

Valentino had denied conspiracy to burglary but was convicted by jurors, while his family members had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer the prosecution said each of the burglars had benefited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.

But Charlie was the sole individual found to have any funds that could be "realised", namely over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by police, the court heard, with two weeks to be served in jail if he failed to pay.

The other three had no assets or property so were ordered to make a nominal fee of £1 each, with seven days in incarceration the result if the money was not submitted.

The judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the future, "such as operating in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", the prosecution could seek new proceedings to "recover the sum due".